Housing Security and Settlement Intentions of Migrants in Urban China

A huge gap remains in the urbanization rate between China and developed countries, although China has experienced a rapid growth in urbanization rate over the last decade. Critical to the future growth of urbanization is how to increase the settlement intentions of migrants. This study uses land supply for security housing as an exogeneous shock to the supply of security housing in the near future to explore how housing security is associated with intentions to settle down in destination cities of the migrant population. We found that increased land supply for security housing promotes the settlement intentions of migrants. Moreover, housing security is positively associated with permanent settlement intentions, while its relation to temporary settlement intentions is not significant. Lastly, the effect of housing security is larger for households with more housing expenditure. Our results have important theoretical and practical significance for the research on urban development and social welfare.